On the revolutionary road in China, there is such a man who has not studied for several years but is particularly capable of fighting wars, the enemy is afraid of him, and the masses of the people praise him as a hero. Even Mao Zedong praised him as a man of great merit to the Chinese revolution; he did not participate in the War of Liberation, but after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was awarded the rank of great general, ranking second.
From the red kiln worker to the commander of the Red Army to the founding general, Xu Haidong was wounded 9 times in his life, 8 times by bullets through the body, and 17 gun holes on his body, which can be described as outstanding achievements.
American journalist Edgar Snow described him as the most mysterious leader of the Chinese Communist Party. What did Xu Haidong do, and why was he praised by American journalists? And why, his entire family of 66 people was tragically wiped out by Chiang Kai-shek?
First, from a red kiln worker to a military commander with outstanding achievements
Xu Haidong grew up in a poor family and was born in 1900 in a small mountain village in Huangpi County (now part of Dawu County) in Hubei Province. The ancestors of the family are all kilns, firing tile pottery, clay pots, water tanks and other household pottery to maintain their livelihood, and Xu Haidong's generation is the seventh generation!
The year Xu Haidong was born caught up with natural disasters, the crops in the field were not harvested, the family had a snack, and Xu Haidong's mother was blind due to long-term labor. Despite the difficult conditions at home, when Xu Haidong was 9 years old, his family still saved money and sent him to a private school to study.
In that turbulent era, children who could enter private schools were either rich or expensive, so Xu Haidong was humiliated in rags. Xu Haidong's family was poor and had no shoes, and some classmates sprinkled cypress thorns next to his seat to deliberately tease him, and he was angry and he fought back.
Then a child of the landlord's family took the opportunity to take revenge, and in the panic, Xu Haidong smashed the children of the landlord's family with stones, and the landlord not only beat Xu Haidong, but also coerced the private school to expel Xu Haidong. After studying hard for 3 and a half years, but ending up like this, Xu Haidong, who was a young man, deeply realized the injustice of the dark old society.
In the following 11 years, Xu Haidong and his family burned pottery and sold pottery, and although they were diligent and capable, their income was only enough to eat. Later, with the help of his former classmates, he came into contact with progressive books and periodicals such as the Communist Manifesto and the Guide. In April 1925, Xu Haidong joined the Communist Party of China.
In the next two years, under the arrangement of the party organization, Xu Haidong first learned military skills in the National Revolutionary Army, and then threw himself into the Northern Expedition, repelling Wu Peifu's four artillery companies with a platoon strength.
During the agrarian revolution, Xu Haidong participated in the jute uprising, and later returned to his hometown in Hunan to form a peasant self-defense counterattack team and served as the captain. In the years that followed, Xu Haidong also showed amazing military talent, rising from the captain of the Self-Defense Forces to the head of the Second Guard Regiment.
In October 1932, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized 300,000 troops to carry out the fourth "encirclement and suppression" of the Red Army in the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region, when the Red Fourth Front led by Xu Haidong was responsible for cover. Due to underdeveloped communications, Xu Haidong lost contact with the headquarters, and at the critical moment, Xu Haidong lined up his troops and annihilated two regiments of the enemy army with less than 2,000 troops, spending 23 days to break out of the siege.
Liu Shuchun, the commander of the Kuomintang division who had become a prisoner of war, was very puzzled by this and asked Xu Haidong which phase of the Whampoa Military Academy? Xu Haidong laughed at this: He has not entered the door of Huangpu and graduated from Qingshan University!
Xu Haidong never went to military school, but he fought many victorious battles. Some people commented that his command tactics were surprise attacks and rarely lost battles. No matter how tricky the battle, he can always bypass the enemy's flank rear and go straight to the center, catching the enemy off guard.
Xu Haidong is not only brave and good at war, but also humble and low-key. In the winter of 1934, Cheng Zihua was transferred to the Red 25th Army, and at the meeting, Xu Haidong took the initiative to demote himself to deputy commander and vacated the position of military commander to Cheng Zihua. Also said
"If you are addicted to fighting, drinking, and walking, you are not addicted to officialdom."
Second, it has made great contributions to the revolution
In 1935, after the Red 25th Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, it continued to engage in the "anti-encirclement and suppression" struggle in the Shaanxi-Gansu region. Subsequently, the Party Central Committee and the Red Army led by Chairman Mao arrived at the town of Wuqi in northern Shaanxi, and after the victory of the division, the Central Red Army faced new difficulties.
At that time, it was already winter, and the Red Army that arrived in northern Shaanxi was thinly dressed and worn, and it was in urgent need of cotton clothes. However, the military expenditure of the Party Central Committee was limited, and Chairman Mao could not even pay 5 cents for food, let alone buy cotton clothes for the soldiers.
The 25th Army led by Xu Haidong often carried out sneak attacks on the enemy's granaries, which had a large amount of grain, cloth and money, so the strategic materials were full. The most famous one was the surprise attack on the county seat of Taihu County in Anhui Province, when Chiang Kai-shek plundered the people's grain in the Eyu-Anhui region to fill the arsenal, and Xu Haidong besieged the county town of Yinshan County in Hubei Province and pretended to attack, resulting in the middle of the night with the main army "taking" the enemy's "granary" of the enemy in Taihu Lake, Anhui.
There are only a few vigilante groups armed there, and they can be easily breached. At that time, Xu Haidong's 25th Army was relatively "rich", and according to Xu Haidong's daughter Xu Huiwen, Xu Haidong's troops at that time each had three bags, respectively, loaded with bullets, grain and silver dollars. Moreover, in the subsequent battles, a large amount of smoke and soil will be captured in the east of Xuhai, which can not only heal the soldiers' wounds and treatment, but also exchange it for money emergency at key moments.
When the Central Committee decided to borrow 2,500 yuan from xuhaidong for an emergency, Chairman Mao personally wrote an IOU to ask Yang Zhicheng, the minister of logistics, to visit the 25th Army. Knowing Yang Zhicheng's intentions, Xu Haidong called minister Zha Guozhen to inquire about how much money was left on the account, and when he learned that there were still 7,000 yuan, he gave the party Central Committee 5,000 yuan without saying a word, and also made a new military uniform for Chairman Mao and sent a lot of tobacco.
Xu Haidong's move was a blessing in disguise for the Central Red Army, Peng Dehuai gratefully praised him as the god of wealth, and Chairman Mao called him a man who had made great contributions to the revolution!
Third, the family was tragically wiped out
Xu Haidong, who was named a general after the founding of the People's Republic of China, did not have the joy of returning to his hometown after becoming famous, but instead he thought about building a cemetery for the family martyrs. It turned out that since Xu Haidong joined the revolution in 1925, because of his flexible mind and good at fighting, he had almost won many battles, and he was also called "Xu Tiger" by the reactionaries. Especially in the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region in 1930, when Xu Haidong led the main forces of the Red Army to negotiate with the Kuomintang reactionaries, he often won more with less, and beat the enemy to the ground.
For this reason, the Kuomintang reactionaries were panicked and the military was unstable. Chiang Kai-shek hated Xu Haidong bitterly, and in order to stabilize the hearts of the army and to completely relieve this crisis, on the one hand, he paid a heavy reward for Xu Haidong's head, and on the other hand, he arranged for secret agents to assassinate Xu Haidong's relatives.
The Kuomintang reactionaries first burned down xu Haidong's old home house, and then killed Xu Haidong's uncle, cousin, fourth brother, fifth brother, and 66 other relatives in batches, not sparing even a small baby. After Xu Haidong heard the bad news, he vowed not to take revenge and not to go home!
Unfortunately, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xu Haidong wanted to find the bones of his relatives to find Qi Qian's tomb and bury them together, but he did not find all of them. Later, Xu Haidong purchased a cemetery for the family martyrs at his own expense to commemorate the contributions made by his family to the revolutionary cause and encourage future generations to work hard. In October 1949, the people's government of Dawu County built the "Tomb of Xu Haidong's Relatives and Martyrs" for posterity to remember.
Xu Haidong devoted his life to the revolutionary cause, had courage and strategy, was generous and simple, had an open mind, always put the party and the people in the first place, and never considered personal gains and losses. Such a spirit is worth learning from each of our descendants!
Text/Born to the Sun
References: 1. "Xu Haidong: The Most Mysterious General among the Military Generals of Our Party", Xie Lei2, "General Guo's Documentary Pen ((Company)" "Red Kiln Worker" Xu Haidong", Wu Dongfeng3, "Xu Haidong: China's Xia Boyang", Xu Wenhui, Zhou Haibin